There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an accounting officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $30.13 an hour? That's $62,666 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 90,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many accounting officers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed organizational skills, analytical skills and communication skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an accounting officer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 11.1% of accounting officers included financial statements, while 8.1% of resumes included internal audit, and 7.8% of resumes included cpa. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the accounting officer job title. But what industry to start with? Most accounting officers actually find jobs in the finance and retail industries.
If you're interested in becoming an accounting officer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 51.9% of accounting officers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 27.4% of accounting officers have master's degrees. Even though most accounting officers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an accounting officer. When we researched the most common majors for an accounting officer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on accounting officer resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an accounting officer. In fact, many accounting officer jobs require experience in a role such as accountant. Meanwhile, many accounting officers also have previous career experience in roles such as controller or chief finance officer.
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As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an accounting officer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as accountant, progress to a title such as senior accountant and then eventually end up with the title regional controller.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Philadelphia, PA • Private
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Stony Brook, NY • Public
New York, NY • Private
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 11.1% of accounting officers listed financial statements on their resume, but soft skills such as organizational skills and analytical skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an accounting officer. The best states for people in this position are Illinois, Alaska, New York, and New Jersey. Accounting officers make the most in Illinois with an average salary of $79,293. Whereas in Alaska and New York, they would average $78,033 and $76,969, respectively. While accounting officers would only make an average of $76,417 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Illinois
$79,293
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
$75,612
Avg. Salary
3. New York
$76,969
Avg. Salary